The Stanford University Gastroenterology research training fellowship provides post doctoral fellows the opportunity to conduct research in a wide variety of areas of relevance to digestive disease under the tutelage of accomplished mentors. Ouractive adult and Pediatric Gl research programs include: (a) gastrointestinal pathogens, the host response to these infections, and related clinical trials, (b) gene therapy for viral hepatitis, c) the regulation of lipoproteins and lipids in the liver and intestine, (d) cellular oncogenesis and intestinal cell growth control, (e) function of digestive epithelial cytoskeletal proteins, (f) cell biology of exocrine pancreas function and the genetic profile of pancreatic malignancy, (g) clinical trials of vaccines/antivirals, and evaluation of liver transplantation and viral hepatitis outcomes, (h) clinical and molecular studies of Barrett's esophagus, (i) development and testing of novel endoscopic diagnostic and therapeutic modalities, (j) intestinal transcriptional regulation, (k) and outcomes and epidemiology in a variety of liver and Gl disorders. For each of the divisional based programs highly successful senior faculty in other departments, often in the basic science departments, have been recruited as potential mentors (affiliated faculty) to provide broader and deeper experiences for the trainee. For those engaged in research in clinical trials, outcomes or epidemiology, we require enrollment in a Master's degree program. The trainees are generally individuals who have completed internal medicine or pediatric residencies and a year of clinical Gl training in our own or another program and are interested in developing skills in bench and/or clinical research. Other potential sources of trainees include physicians trained in other specialties, or postdoctoral Ph.D. trainees, who wish to pursue Gl research. The training program is enriched by the NIH-funded Stanford Digestive Disease Research Center that provides support for and training in sophisticated technologies such as confocal and electron microscopy, FACS, mass spectroscopy, microarray analysis and in vivo imaging. At present, we have a program that includes a minimum of two years of research training (frequently 3 to 5 years) and enrolls one to two new trainees per year. Over three-quarters of our Gl trainees over the past 10 years have published their work that was funded by the Gl Training Grant. Most importantly, the program has had considerable academic success with 75% of the M.D. or M.D./Ph.D. trainees over the last 10 years entering academia. In the last 5 years only M.D.'s or M.D./Ph.D.s were appointed to the grant and over 90% of them remain in academic positions.